This invention relates to a gelling agent heating unit for heating gelling agent with a portable heating element.
In the past, various kinds of portable heaters with no external power have been proposed. For example, there is a portable heater with a disposable pocket heater for heating milk at the outside (see Japanese patent application publication No. S63-34437).
There may be some case where it is necessary to heat a gelling agent at a place having no external power. For example, in a medical field, an ultrasonic testing is generally executed. In such a testing, a gelling agent (gel for ultrasonic testing) is used in order to improve an efficiency of ultrasound transmission between a body surface of an examinee and an ultrasonic probe. It is preferable to heat such gel for ultrasonic testing in advance in order not to give uncomfortable feeling to an examinee (concretely speaking, 35° C. to 40° C.). In recent years, a battery drive type of an ultrasonic testing unit with no external power exists on the marketplace (such as MicroMaxx series by SonoSite Inc.), through which a doctor can execute ultrasonic testing at a patient's home having no external power. But, no proper heating unit for ultrasonic testing gel which has no external power has not yet been proposed. A method of heating gel for ultrasonic testing by driving a battery is not practical because of high power consumption. If a conventional unit for heating liquid is used for heating a gelling agent, it is not possible to uniformly heat the gelling agent since the gelling agent is low in fluidity in comparison with liquid, such as milk. In order to uniformly heat a gelling agent, a person may crumple a gel container for a predetermined time, but in fact, such a work is troublesome.
An object of the invention is to provide a gelling agent heating unit for solving the above-mentioned inconveniences.